The pitfalls of working remotely is the problem for the modern workplace.
Whether it's permanently remote employees or individuals who choose to work occasional days from home, most tech companies in 2016 have experienced the frustrations of independent employee communication. We spoke with Karen Batcheller of Pandora and John Myers of to better understand how Colorado offices are managing their remote employees.
Making time for face time
While some remote employees live overseas, it's still important to bring everyone together on occasion to fuel team relationships. For people within the U.S. this could be every couple months and for people outside the country, it could be a yearly occurrence. Just make sure when people make the trip, it’s worth it. Plan team-building outings and important meetings to get the most out of the time together.
“My first year with the company, I traveled to Oakland approximately once a month,” said Batcheller, who works for Pandora from a remote office in Boulder. “This allowed me to build relationships both with my engineering clients and my team members. In addition to relationship building within the office, we spent time outside of the office at dinners, lunches, etc. We also hold an annual recruiting off-site.”
Instilling Accountability
The most difficult part of managing a remote team is measuring their output. Workers who come into a physical office every day may procrastinate from time to time, but their presence creates a sense of engagement with their work and the company. Remote employees, however, are often limited to the timeliness of their emails, messages and phone calls.
“We feel it's always better to measure productivity with output rather than how long someone is sitting at their desk or ‘at work,’” Myers said. “We haven't found this to be much different for someone working remotely or in our office. But it takes a certain personality to work remotely and, especially with younger team members, it can on occasion be challenging to keep those that may not have that personality from wanting to work from home more than we'd like for our culture.”
“I think first and foremost you have to establish a trust in your remote workers,” said Batcheller. “ I have bi-weekly meetings with my manager in which I provide updates, share roadblocks, etc. We set goals and rely on reporting (to some degree).”
Tack Mobile's office in Denver
Staying in touch
Perhaps the most consistent frustration with remote employees is communication technology. While chatting platforms are a simple way to fire off quick notes, video conferencing is the new preferred method for individual or group meetings — but not all video conferencing software is created equal. Sound and connection problems can stall meetings and kill productivity, so a solid internet connection and the right software are vital to keeping remote employees engaged. And with a bevy of new features entering the video call space, companies can share their screens, notes and documents with one another in real time.
“We allow people to work from home up to once a week, so we make sure all of our tools are accessible remotely,” Myers said. “We use videoconferencing for most meetings instead of relying on chat or phone calls.”
Click here to learn more about Colorado’s newest video conferencing platform, FoxDen, or attend their launch party on May 26 in Denver.
